On Sunday, December 23, the R. McNiven & Sons Insurance Ingersoll Express Atom Rep team, along with their families, friends, and some IDMHA Alumni (including Kingston Frontenacs forward Mitchell Fitzmorris) took to the ice at the Budweiser Gardens in London for a fun game of shinny.
After an old fashioned stick toss, the teams were set and everybody in attendance was up for a good time. It was a great experience for the team to be able to take to the ice in a bonding session and have some fun, a nice way to end things before Christmas before getting back into the serious stuff after Boxing Day.
The occasion was a birthday party to celebrate the birthday's of three of the players who all have December birthdays within 2 weeks of one another. The guests of honour were Parker, Brennan and Symon. Instead of presents though, the boys asked that their friends bring non-perishable donations for the Ingersoll Food Bank. The game was followed up by pizza and cake, and Mitchell signed autographs for all of the kids, including some pictures he brought, as well as hockey sticks, and even a cake plate.
On Monday Brennan and Symon stopped off at the Hurley's Independent Grocery Store to drop off all of the donated items for the food bank (unfortunately Parker wasn't available to join). The boys all felt quite special about being able to help out others who may not be able to have the kind of Christmas that they do.
The team next takes the ice for development and practice on Thursday and Saturday, and face their next competition on Sunday, December 30 when they travel to Tillsonburg for a 3:00 pm start time.